Origins

The oldest broadcasting network in the United States, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) came into being on November 15, 1926, with a gala four-hour radio program originating from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. NBC was the joint effort of three pioneers in mass communications: Radio Corporation of America (RCA; now RCA Corporation), American Telephone and Telegraph (now AT&T Corporation), and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Two early radio stations in Newark, New Jersey, and New York City—WJZ, founded by Westinghouse in 1921, and WEAF, founded by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company in 1923—had earlier been acquired by RCA and, after NBC was created, became the centres of NBC’s two semi-independent networks, the Blue Network, based on WJZ, and the Red Network, based on WEAF, each with its respective links to stations in other cities.

Ventriloquist and entertainer Edgar Bergen posing with his dummies: (from left) Effie Klinker, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd.Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThe formation of NBC was orchestrated by David Sarnoff, the general manager of RCA, which became the network’s sole owner in 1930. Although he had envisioned NBC primarily as an informational service, the network gained its stronghold in the radio industry with such pure-entertainment efforts as Amos ’n’ Andy and The Jack Benny Program. In 1943, under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NBC sold the less-lucrative Blue Network to Edward J. Noble, who eventually changed its name to the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. (ABC). (By 1938 the more prosperous Red Network was carrying 75 percent of NBC’s commercial programs.) In 1948 NBC suffered severely when it lost several of its leading performers—including Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll (Amos ’n’ Andy), Edgar Bergen, and Red Skelton—to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS; now CBS Corporation) in a talent raid, thereby losing an edge in the upcoming television age.

Television and beyond

On April 30, 1939, with its broadcast of the opening ceremonies of the New York World’s Fair, NBC began a regular television service, and by 1951 it had established a coast-to-coast television network. Despite the success of such programs as The Howdy Doody Show (1947–60) and Kraft Television Theatre (1947–58; another version appeared on ABC in 1953–55) and such stars as Milton Berle and Sid Caesar, NBC television perennially ran second in the ratings to CBS. Even so, NBC remained a leader in the field of technological advancements, notably the development of RCA’s colour television system, which the FCC accepted as the industry standard in 1953. That year NBC pioneered the first coast-to-coast transmission of a colour television broadcast, and in 1956 it made the first television broadcast recorded on videotape (rather than presented live).

Though its television operations continued to expand throughout the 1960s and ’70s, NBC’s radio business sagged, and in 1987 its radio network was purchased by Westwood One; it ceased operations altogether in 1999. As the result of several executive miscalculations, NBC entered the 1980s as the television industry’s lowest-rated network, running a distant third place to ABC and CBS. The situation improved dramatically when Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff took over, respectively, as network chairman and chief programmer at the beginning of the decade. Despite occasional setbacks (some of which were attributed to budget cuts when NBC was purchased by GE in 1985), the network climbed to the top of the ratings with a steady diet of popular situation comedies—Cheers (1982–93), The Cosby Show (1984–92), Seinfeld (1989–98), and Friends (1994–2004)—and powerful dramatic series—Law & Order (1990–2010), ER (1994–2009), and The West Wing (1999–2006).

In the 1990s NBC began to establish a significant presence on cable television with the business-oriented CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) and MSNBC (a joint venture with Microsoft Corporation), which specialized in news and political views. In 1985 RCA was purchased by GE, and in 2004 NBC merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment to form NBC Entertainment, with GE as the majority owner.